Embossed Mini Notebooks

I’m a notebook junkie. I love writing my ‘to-do’ list down in my pocked-sized notebook, and the sense of satisfaction I get from crossing things off that list. I thought it’d be nice to share a tutorial on how to make your own mini embossed notebook. The embossing part is fun, and allows you to customize each notebook. And these are cheap to make, so you can have one for your every whim!

Steps:
Emboss your kraft cards. These will be the notebook covers.1. Take your rubber stamp, and stamp it onto the embossing pad.

2 & 3. Then stamp it onto your kraft card. The embossing ink has a long drying time, so you don’t need to rush too much to the next step.

4. Apply the embossing powder. You probably want to spread out newspaper under your working surface because the powder gets everywhere. Sprinkle a generous amount onto the stamped part of the card, and shift it around so that the powder coats the inked part evenly. Make sure your stamped and powdered lines are crisp (i.e. no stray powder).

5. Turn on your heat tool, and let it warm up for one minute. Then hold it at a 45-degree angle to the card and heat the area with the embossing powder. Once the powder turns solid, move on to the next area.

I did a couple variations with the different stamps I had.I also had an embossing pen, which allowed me to write custom messages on my notebook cover. You can do something similar with a thin paintbrush and the emboss refill.

Next, it’s time to create the notebook.1. Take 4 sheets of printer paper (8.5″ x 11″), and fold them in half twice. Your paper will have 2 fold lines and 4 quadrants. Stack all 4 pieces of folded paper on top of each other so that the folded edges are all on the same side.

2. Trim away the folds in the paper. Place your kraft card on top of the folded paper, lining it up to the side of paper without the folds. Use your X-acto knife and ruler to trim the excess paper off on the top side of the card (this is the right side in the photo above). Only trim the top side; you will be trimming the long side of the notebook in the last step.

3. Take one sheet of paper, mark off 1.5″ from each end. Punch a semi-circle on the marked parts. Use this as a guide to mark the other pages and the kraft card, then punch holes in each of those.

4. Open up the cover, and then all the pages and stack them on top of each other. Sew your book together using your needle and bead thread. I looped the needle through each hole twice.

5. Double knot the thread in the center of the book. Lastly, trim off the remaining edge of white paper (the long side of the notebook).

And you’re done!

I love how fun these notebooks came out.Since the kraft cards came with matching envelopes, I think it’d be a terrific idea to send one of these notebooks to a friend. You could exchange notes and send the notebook back and forth. How fun would that be?

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